Personalising the customer experience, improving operational efficiency and moving to new delivery models are some the top IT trends to expect from telcos in 2016.

That according to global analyst firm Ovum, who claims that telco IT trends are being driven by the need to keep up with the growing market competition, the industry’s shift toward digital services, and the need to gain business agility.

According to Ovum’s latest report, 65 percent of telcos plan to increase IT spend in 2016, with 32 percent planning to increase spend by six percent or more.

Over the next year, telcos will invest in analytics tools to improve the customer experience, undertake BSS transformation projects to improve operational efficiency, and optimise network performance, and they will search for more effective delivery models.

“It is driving telco IT trends over the next year, particularly transformation projects aimed at improving the BSS stack to enable restructuring of tariff systems, adding billing convergence and real-time charging capabilities, and integrating billing systems with customer management systems.”

Cary says it is also important to note that, although telcos are increasing their IT spend, they are still very budget-conscious and will strategically undertake IT projects that can provide quick returns on investment.

“We also expect to see telcos shift away from the on-premise deployments of IT systems in favour of cloud delivery models,” Cary adds.

“In fact, 59 percent of the telcos we spoke to said that they plan to adopt cloud delivery for at least one of their IT systems in 2016.”

Copyright 2017 IDG Communications. ABN 14 001 592 650. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of IDG Communications is prohibited.